Author
Topic: Editing the in game menu (Read 5833 times)

Im not sure if there is a section for this already but how would i go about doing this? By in game menu i mean the one that pops up when you press triangle, just so theres no confusion. Id love to be able to move it around and customize it

ok, any chance i can get an in depth description or a step by step sorta thing to help out, once i know what to do i can go do it. Like the hex edit stuff im not sure on how it works, i have the exe's and stuff but messing around with it blindly probably isnt a good idea.

All menu item x y positions are in the exe. Graphics are in menu_us.lgp (you can use aali's driver to bypass this with png files). I forget the folders needed.... You may be better installing Reunion R03 (not version 4) - and that will give you a structure.

OK well I got the Idea mainly from a YouTube video I found done with video editing alone and wondered if it was possible. Like you mentioned there all I need is to change the png from boxes to whatever I decide and alter the x.y.z coords for the buttons. That's perfect

The answer is largely no. That would require huge changes to the engine and additional graphics and assembly. If you have an enormous amount of time on your hands... and are adept in assembly... maybe.

I don't so much want to copy this. Like the battle I'm leaving. I have ff9 with coloured tabs and I'm happy. I just wanna know how to open up the game so that video could be possible.

You could do something like this, but you'll probably need to rewrite most of the menu system. Given the way the engine works this is possible but will take a lot of time and effort. Each module of the game is a struct with some pointers for like OnKey, OnUpdate, OnRender etc. So you'd have to reverse those, load a DLL that overwrites the menu module functions with your own. And then write your new menu system.

I'm doing something a bit like this for Metal Gear Solid 1: https://github.com/paulsapps/msgi this aims to fully reverse the game though, improvements to come later (apart from things that are required to actually make the game boot/use hardware rendering).

Its great that its do-able but im still clueless really, im going in to this blind willing to learn whats needed and take as much time as needed. I dont know how to get TO the folders with the details in let alone edit any of them, i was first hoping it was a simple png type thing haha

the best solution I can think of is to create an overlay to replace the menu. At the start I would place the new menu over the existing one and at the end I would try to disable the original UI and adding additional features. The advantage of this would be an entirely outsourced and global UI of which we have full control of.

the best solution I can think of is to create an overlay to replace the menu. At the start I would place the new menu over the existing one and at the end I would try to disable the original UI and adding additional features. The advantage of this would be an entirely outsourced and global UI of which we have full control of.

If you replaced the menu module of the game this is exactly what you'd have. @Tsunamix you need to write a DLL that injects itself and takes over the menu module -i.e replaces the function pointers in the module struct with your own for rendering, input etc.

rcxrdx started doing some work on FF8 here, it would be something like this:

Apart from you are only interested in the menu module, access to the script vars (someone will already know all of the var addresses for these things), and the rendering API (again must be known since there is a custom opengl renderer dll).

If you replaced the menu module of the game this is exactly what you'd have.

Not exactly because the text input isn't handled by the menu. I probably would outsource it to the UI and would use strings to add a high mod compatibility support. However I'm not a programmer and can't do it (but I'm good in giving inspiration and ideas. )

Not exactly because the text input isn't handled by the menu. I probably would outsource it to the UI and would use strings to add a high mod compatibility support. However I'm not a programmer and can't do it (but I'm good in giving inspiration and ideas. )

The text input IS handled by the menu module! Trust me, replacing the menu module with your own would allow you to create the one seen in the youtube video. You'd have your own input handling, for rendering just make your own GL context and give the game engine a textured quad as the output. You'd need a few other hooks into the game to read the script vars etc.

Sounds good. I've managed to get into the exe and find all the numbers and stuff. And I have a good list of what all the numbers and sections do. But do I change the actual exe or create a dll? Plus I know now I think how yo move things but I don't know how to change the appearance of something. Like the general interface and what not

Sounds good. I've managed to get into the exe and find all the numbers and stuff. And I have a good list of what all the numbers and sections do. But do I change the actual exe or create a dll? Plus I know now I think how yo move things but I don't know how to change the appearance of something. Like the general interface and what not

You can use this as a base. It compiles to a dll called ddraw.dll - when placed in the same dir as ff7.exe it will load the fake ddraw.dll instead of the real one. This can be used as the entry point for hooking the menu module functions and replacing them with your own.

You can use this as a base. It compiles to a dll called ddraw.dll - when placed in the same dir as ff7.exe it will load the fake ddraw.dll instead of the real one. This can be used as the entry point for hooking the menu module functions and replacing them with your own.

Hey guys, right umm ive been doing tons of research with this and im beginning to grasp tile mapping, which file does what and the basic assembly. What im struggling with or at least i think is .. the dll file you sent me Paul to replace the original, What exactly do i do with it, do i delete all the text and call references or do i need to keep some? From what i cam tell the graphics are in btl_win_h.tex but im unsure, also im looking in the menu overhaul mod to get an idea of how things work and i dont understand how we separate the textures into different bmp's and call them to a specific command in script. How can i just add a bmp/png whichever, name it something and have it called to different modules (menu, equip, limit ect) just a single pic like buster_00. Im fairly sure with a lot of google'ing ive managed to find the right number thingys in the exe for specific text/avatars but not the cursor or cursor shadow when selecting a specific text. Again with the config menu i dont know where or how the window colour operation is performed and it doesn't lead me to anything. I dont know if any of this makes sense i don't really understand it myself nevermind explain it to anyone else.

Hey guys, right umm ive been doing tons of research with this and im beginning to grasp tile mapping, which file does what and the basic assembly. What im struggling with or at least i think is .. the dll file you sent me Paul to replace the original, What exactly do i do with it, do i delete all the text and call references or do i need to keep some? From what i cam tell the graphics are in btl_win_h.tex but im unsure, also im looking in the menu overhaul mod to get an idea of how things work and i dont understand how we separate the textures into different bmp's and call them to a specific command in script. How can i just add a bmp/png whichever, name it something and have it called to different modules (menu, equip, limit ect) just a single pic like buster_00. Im fairly sure with a lot of google'ing ive managed to find the right number thingys in the exe for specific text/avatars but not the cursor or cursor shadow when selecting a specific text. Again with the config menu i dont know where or how the window colour operation is performed and it doesn't lead me to anything. I dont know if any of this makes sense i don't really understand it myself nevermind explain it to anyone else.

Sounds like you're better building a replacement menu outside of the game, then add it into the game later?